Development of small plasma system for surface modification and cleaning

Abstract

A small plasma system using microwave oven was developed for the application of surface modification and cleaning in thin films research. The microwave oven with 800-Watt power generates 2.45-GHz frequency. The vacuum chamber was inserted into the microwave oven from the top of oven wall and it was evacuated by a rotary pump to less than 7 x 10-3 Torr. This system can generate argon and oxygen plasma at a pressure of 0.2 – 3.0 Torr. This small plasma system was applied to clean a surface of microscope glass slide using argon and oxygen plasma. To reveal the effects of argon and oxygen plasma on material surface, the glass slide was measured by contact angle tensiometer. The results show that the contact angle between a water droplet and glass surface decreases with increasing the exposure time. This result indicates that the cleanness of material surface was improved by using the small plasma system.